By Akinwale Kasali
If Chidinma Ojukwu, the self-confessed murderer of Super TV CEO, Usifo Ataga, thought the whole gory incident was a joke, reality dawned on her Monday, August the 9th, 2021.
She was arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate Court along with another suspect, Quadri Adedapo, for Ataga’s inexplicable gruesome murder which froze Nigerians.
And, at the end of the brief Court session, they were hauled from the fairly respectable custody of the Police to the Prisons. They will be there for the next 30 days when the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, will advise on their case.
The Magistrate, Adeola Adedayo, gave the order following a remand application by the police prosecutor, Cyril Ajifor, who said the application was made pursuant to section 264 subsections 1 and 2 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.
The 21 year old Mass Communication student of the Lagos State University, in her first Public confession said she stabbed Ataga to death under the influence of drugs and alcohol. A couple of weeks later, she recanted and said she went out to buy drug and food, and met him already killed when she came back.
To Ajifor’s remand application was attached a 12-page affidavit, statements of the defendants, and exhibit to show that the file has been duplicated to the Department of Public Prosecution, DPP for legal advice.
“We are praying for the remand of the defendants for the first count,” Ajifor said.
Representing the first defendant, Babajide Martins, Director of the Office of Public Defender said the remand application is “inevitable.”
Martins did not opposed the application, but enjoined the prosecution team to make necessary documents available to the defence before being brought to the court for the next hearing.
In her ruling, the Magistrate granted the remand of the defendants for 30 days.
“In the absence of anything to the contrary, the two defendants are remanded for 30 days in the first instance,” Mrs Adedayo said.
She adjourned the matter to September 5 for the review of remand and legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
Chidinma, a 300-level Mass Communication student at the University of Lagos, allegedly murdered Ataga at a Short-let apartment on June 16, 2021, on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase I, with multiple stabs.
Chidinma was consequently arrested on June 23 in her father’s house in Yaba and paraded at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja.
She confessed to stabbing Usifo with a knife under the influence of alcohol and withdrawing N380,000 from the victim’s account with his ATM card. She, however, backtracked later in a video, absolving herself from the murder. The
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, dismissed the retraction as the thoughts of an active criminal.
